All posts by MFP

Starting this month, Maine Family Planning will be offering consultations and prescriptions for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis – commonly called PrEP – a daily pill that significantly reduces the risk of HIV infection (HIV is the virus that causes AIDS). You can talk to a Nurse Practitioner at any of our 18 clinics about your HIV status, your individual risk, and whether PrEP is a good option for you.

Want to know more? We’ve answered some of the most commonly asked questions below. If PrEP sounds like something that might be right for you, give us a call to set up a visit.

What is PrEP?

PrEP (brand name Truveda) is an antiretroviral medication that can be taken by an HIV negative person before potential HIV exposure to reduce risk of HIV infection. When taken consistently and correctly, PrEP is over 90% effective at preventing HIV transmission through sex, and over 70% effective at preventing HIV transmission through IV drug injection.

The following interview was conducted with a Maine woman who has had a medication abortion. She remains anonymous in order to protect her privacy and safety.

Why do you feel it’s important to share your story?

I want to do my part to de-stigmatize abortion while using my story to help expand access and options for reproductive health care here in Maine.

When I looked around for sympathetic abortion stories, all I could find were narratives about people who chose to get abortions because they were survivors of incest and sexual assault, or they were teenagers living in extreme poverty. I understand why some organizations lift up these kinds of narratives. They underscore the profound human rights abuses that occur when people are denied the right to abortion care and provide a powerful counter-point to right-wing arguments that anti-choice laws protect women and girls. I think that these stories are important and need to be heard.

However, these stories do not reflect my own experience. When I got pregnant I was 29-years-old, in a loving partnership, and was using birth control. Neither my partner nor I had a job at the time, and our financial situation did play a role in my decision to terminate my pregnancy. But it was just one factor, and it could have been overcome. When it came down to it, I just didn’t want a child at that time. I thought I might want one in the future, but it was not the right moment. I have long believed that there is nothing wrong with abortion and that people should get to choose when and if they have kids. Continue reading →

Last week, Donald Trump stated that there should be some kind of punishment for women who have abortions. We saw a heartening and swift response from friends, colleagues, leaders and the media: Trump’s comments were outrageous and infuriating.

We’re glad people are angry about Trump’s comments about abortion. We hope people will continue to push back against any attempts to punish people who have abortions, provide abortions, or simply consider abortion. It’s important to recognize, however, that Trump simply said out loud what opponents of abortion have believed for years, what Ted Cruz has voted for and what John Kasich has enacted.

Since 2011, states have passed nearly 300 laws restricting abortion, passing 57 in the past year alone. In states like Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, abortion has been so severely restricted it may as well be illegal for a large number of women.

Let’s be clear: Those who exercise their constitutionally protected right to seek, access and provide abortion are already being punished, and any efforts to restrict or ban abortion are attempts — either overt or veiled — to punish women who seek abortion. Continue reading →

Through your contributions and pledges, we raised $10,018.00 during our 2016 Pledge-A-Picketer campaign.

This came in the form of 50individual contributions and 20pledges. Our individual gifts ranged from $3.00 to $1,000.00, with the majority being $25 or less. Pledges of just a few cents per picketer added up quickly, totaling almost half of the full amount raised. This proves that there is strength in numbers and that every dollar goes a long way toward reaching our goals.

We counted 1,105 picketersover the 40 day Pledge-A-Picketer campaign–that’s a whole lot of judgment and intimidation. While there is some relief now that the daily protests have ended, we continue to see picketers at our Augusta office every week. Your continued advocacy and support is crucial to ensuring that patients can access reproductive care all year long.

We are so grateful for your support. Knowing that our friends care about the work we do gives us the strength to pass the picketers’ hateful signs with courage rather than fear. On behalf of our patients and staff, we can’t thank you enough for your generosity.

It’s been almost a year since the Christian Civic League announced that their prayers were the reason Maine Family Planning’s 2015 Pledge-A-Picketer campaign raised about half of the previous year’s total. In response, Mike Tipping and Dan Savage went to bat for MFP by spreading the word about the CCL’s outrageous claims, and with your help, we far exceeded our 2015 Pledge-A-Picketer goal.

We are so grateful for your support and for the generosity shown by people around the world. Last year, we raised over $60,000 through almost 1,500 contributions, with an average gift of less than $50. At least one gift came from every one of the 50 states and from as far away as the UK , Thailand, and Australia.

It was an amazing outpouring of love and support for the patients and staff who have to pass the hateful signs and judgmental picketers throughout February and March. We cannot thank you enough.

There’s only a week left for the 2016 Pledge-A-Picketer campaign, but we’re not done raising money to support reproductive health care in Maine. Don’t let the picketers think their judgment, intimidation, and lies have the power to stop us: help us raise $3,000 in the next 7 days. Continue reading →

We’re about a month into our annual Pledge-A-Picketer campaign, and we want you to know just how much your support adds up. When we say there is Strength in Numbers, it’s because we know that we are stronger together—but this phrase also speaks to the numbers that illustrate how much the work we do counts. We hope you are proud of these numbers too, because your contributions and support make them possible.

The teen birth rate in Maine has dropped by almost 50% over the last decade, thanks in part to our work to support evidence-based sexuality education in Maine schools. This year alone, over 1,700 students have received comprehensive sex education as a result of our work with schools.

As of today, we are 2/3rds through the 40 day Pledge-A-Picketer campaign, and 33 supporters have donated $6,205.00. Continue reading →

Maine Family Planning is proud to congratulate Connie Adler, MD, who will be inducted into The Maine Women’s Hall of Fame on March 19th. Honorees are women whose work has had a significant, enduring positive impact on the lives of women in Maine.

Dr. Adler certainly fits the bill; as one colleague stated in his nomination letter:

“She is a force of nature who has let nothing stand in her way in her quest for better health care for the women of Maine. In her practice of medicine she has worked tirelessly to provide access to quality women’s health services for all women regardless of race, socioeconomic status, or co-existing mental health or substance abuse problems.”

It has been Adler’s mission to promote recognition that the care of women must include the pursuit of reproductive rights, contraceptive choice, and prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault—and that healthcare must be accessible to all Mainers, regardless of where they live or how much they make. As another colleague notes:

“Dr. Adler’s advocacy in promoting women’s healthcare has made a significant difference for Maine women that spans beyond a generation. Her work includes all levels of women’s care, from counseling on nutrition and maternal health for pregnant women, working on issues that educate the community on domestic violence to bringing global perspectives on women’s healthcare.” Continue reading →

If you’re like me, your social media has been filled with posts about Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing on Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the challenge of a Texas law that has shut down most of Texas’s abortion providers.

The sheer amount of information and analysis can be overwhelming, so instead of adding to the information overload, we thought we’d share some of our favorite links about the case and what it means for abortion rights in Maine and around the country.

Want to get up to speed on what Whole Women’s Health is about and what it could mean?

Like you, MFP will be looking forward to the Court’s decision on this major abortion case, which will likely be issued in June. Once the decision is issued, we’ll have a lot to say about what it means for Maine and the country. Check back here for MFP’s perspective!

Maine Family Planning is increasing access to medication abortion in underserved and rural communities through the use of telemedicine technology. Patients who would otherwise have to drive long distances to access services in Bangor, Augusta, or Portland may now be able to access care at an additional 16 Maine Family Planning centers.

Our Commenting Policy

On the Front Lines is a pro-choice publication, and the majority of our readers support the struggle for the sexual and reproductive rights and health of all person. We realize that some of our readers and commenters may not support these goals. We encourage civil discourse and welcome comments representing diverse viewpoints that are evidence-based and reasonably engage in debate. We reserve the right to delete, without further explanation, comments that misrepresent evidence or promote misinformation, that threaten or demean others, or undermine the civility of discussion. We reserve the right to ban users who repeatedly abuse commenting privileges.